B.C. cop fined for on-duty crash

More than two years after an on-duty collision with a motorcycle, a North Okanagan RCMP officer has pleaded guilty to a lesser/included charge.

Const. Megan Valenta, born 1977, appeared in Vernon Law Courts Oct. 31 where she pleaded guilty to making an unsafe u-turn in relation to an Aug. 6, 2016 accident on Highway 6 near Coldstream. Valenta was an on-duty member of the RCMP Lumby detachment at the time of the accident.

After a review by the Independent Investigations Office, Valenta was originally charged with a single count of driving without due care under the Motor Vehicle Act in August 2017.

“The incident involved a collision between an RCMP truck driven by an on-duty member of the Lumby detachment and a motorcycle,” a release said at the time charges were laid.

During the incident near Brewer Road, the two Kelowna occupants of the motorcycle — a 46-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman — were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries while the officer remained uninjured.

Court documents show that Valenta has been fined $750 in addition to paying a victim surcharge fee.